My "Good" Sense of Humor

19 comments

bertrayo1 K2 years agoPeakD4 min read

“I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh.”

― Maya Angelou

Hello there, full-time weekenders!

There's a common thing about the friends I have made in real life. Most of them tend to come at me with a variation of the same phrase. It revolves around being too serious to understand how to to approach me for anything. I don't blame them. This demeanor is a heritage that comes from my grandma, passed down to my mother and finally came to me. In that sense, I think my brother has a better serious face than me. Mine is just too expressive to be taken seriously.

So, I love to use my facial expressions to convey sense to the things I say. And in that same sense, it helps a lot having a good sense of humor to make myself laugh on a daily basis and spread some of that laughter around. However, even when I consider this humor thing is a key component of my personality, it doesn't hinder my manners. Manners are important too.

I'm not making fun of people. Mostly, I make fun at situations. Big difference. The notion of good sense humor, at least for me, is closely tied to having some restrain to the things we use to make our remarks. There are a few exceptions.

For example, in black and political humor, just like in erotic fields, if you want to be polite, you're doing it wrong.

Coming back to the idea of being hard to approach, it comes as a bad habit. I tend to be absorbed in my own thoughts. Most of the time, I can't tell if I was staring at someone or what does my face convey. Maybe people think I'm angry. But the truth is I'm just distracted. And I make jokes from that kind of behavior. Laughing is a serious matter; laughing at yourself, even more.

But I would say that my good manners fall short in certain categories. I don't tend to say greeting when I come into places. This got me into some discussion back in college when teachers told me I had to announce myself when I came into the classroom, even when doing so interrupted them. And you can already guess, I argued about this. Interrupting isn't polite either. If I came late, then I have to come in the classroom without making a fuss. That wasn't always possible, but that's the way my brain understands it.

I guess good manners and good sense of humor are like evil. It is something you can only measure according to time and trends.

However, I'd always answer to any greetings I get. Like the ones coming from the people who also take walks before dawn. I'm sleepy and listening to music, but aware of my surroundings. Which takes me back to the things most friends tell me. Their remarks about the difficulties about approaching me always end up in "but you're nice to talk to. We can talk about anything". Well, duh. I mean I'm human as well.

And with that remark you know I love to make jokes out of anything.

I guess the whole idea of what's more important to my personality comes down to a simple exercise. When I meet someone, I'm as polite as one can be. There's the handshake and look into the eyes. As soon as I can tell saying a dumb thing isn't going to get me in any trouble, I do it. It's a great way to break the ice and get some conversation going. On the contrary, if the dumb thing is going to get me in trouble, I say it too. Why? I can't trust people people who doesn't laugh at silly things. And if me being a clown gets on their nerves, they might just save the ordeal of having to keep them around.

So what's more important in your personality, good sense of humor or good manners? And remember than one thing doesn't get in the way of the other.